TIMECARDS for PLAT

is it legal to trade Plat or items for GAMETIME/STATION CASH cards. I see alot of this going on but i was always under the assumption that trading ingame items for real world items was violation of EULA and bannable offense but if you say that ingame you get flammed hard from people claiming that SOE and EQ2 staff know it happens and dont care.

It happens but without getting rid of Station Cash cards completely there is no way to actually stop it. If they banned everyone that did it they would lose 25% of the player base, and really is it that bad. I figure if people have the extra plat, and people have the extra cash in real life to do this then let them. It doesn't effect my playing at all. Heck if they get alot of plat from it and then can afford to by my stuff off the broker then the more poser too them. So if you really feel that this is wrong, I'm sorry, but until it makes a difference in my playing I think it is a nonissue.

Last I heard, they were turning a blind eye as long as no one made it into an official deal; ie: set up a website with set conversion prices or anything. But yeah, SoE also won't really help you if you get ripped off or scammed, so it's entirely at your own risk.
Personally, it doesn't bother me. I know some online friends who live in areas where SC cards are, quite literally, unavailable. Having the means to get ahold of them, even if SoE doesn't entirely support it, I see as an option for them.

These transactions make it more difficult for plat farmers to make a buck, because there is a safer way to get plat for cash since the only place you're giving your CC# to is SOE or a merchant that sold you the card. If they were to create a way to trade SC for plat, then there would be pretty much no way for plat farmers to get cash out of the plat<->SC closed loop, and they would be out of the picture. The gambling game would have to go, but it would be healthier for the game.

“Last I heard, they were turning a blind eye as long as no one made it into an official deal; ie: set up a website with set conversion prices or anything.”

Which is what SoE should do. Eve Online has a wonderful system where a player can buy a game card and sell it via the ingame market for isk. This was its safe and secure and it takes some of the meat away from 3rd party sites.

“strange times indead when SOE won't take an official position on cheating
buying plat used to get you banned”

How is gaining platinum cheating?
Someone is buying SoE cards, so SoE gets money.
If they were to implement CCP's system, then it would go through their own servers in an escrow feature, saving people from fraud.

“strange times indead when SOE won't take an official position on cheating
buying plat used to get you banned”

How is gaining platinum cheating?
Someone is buying SoE cards, so SoE gets money.
If they were to implement CCP's system, then it would go through their own servers in an escrow feature, saving people from fraud.”

However one might feel about this practice, i don't see how this is any different from making every server a livegamer server-minus the character selling/buying. The ONLY reason that this is allowed, and buying from 3rd party sites isnt, is that soe makes money on it. I could care less what others do, it doesnt affect me, but to act like selling sc cards for plat is somehow morally acceptable, and buying from a website is not, is just hypocritical. The only difference is who gets the money, soe, or some guy in china lol.

“strange times indead when SOE won't take an official position on cheating
buying plat used to get you banned”

How is gaining platinum cheating?
Someone is buying SoE cards, so SoE gets money.
If they were to implement CCP's system, then it would go through their own servers in an escrow feature, saving people from fraud.”

You meant to ask "how is BUYING platinum cheating?"

Gaining plat is a standard ingame activity. Buying it from another player with real world cash is cheating. SOE turns a blind eye to cheating, so long as it uses SC as the RL cash mechanic. Why? Because SOE profits from it.

RMT is just as damaging to EQ2 as it was back when plat farmers were the sole recipients of proceeds from plat farming. If anything, RMT is more damaging now because SOE's actions (allowing SC->plat player transactions) allows people to be much more open about engaging in RMT.

However, people are still being scammed. Accounts are still being hacked. Pull your head out of the sand and open your eyes. This practice being allowed by Smokeblower, is a very clear demonstration of SOE's moral and ethical standpoint. In short, they are no better than trash.

“strange times indead when SOE won't take an official position on cheating
buying plat used to get you banned”

How is gaining platinum cheating?
Someone is buying SoE cards, so SoE gets money.
If they were to implement CCP's system, then it would go through their own servers in an escrow feature, saving people from fraud.”

isn't it odd that people are against stat items on the marketplace because they are against 'buying' power yet they are in full support of trading sc for plat and buying loot rights?
progression should be via gameplay, not credit cards

Not really. No websites are visited and no account info is shared.
Greeblen- wrote:

“buying plat, items, characters, power leveling, etc, from 3rd party websites is against our policies and we remove any plat, items, exp, or characters from accounts that buy them and take further disciplinary action on accounts that continue to do this or are severe offenders.sharing your account information (login/password) is against SOE policies
The plat selling and power leveling websites are now actively compromising accounts, \
from a website plat seller,
such as virus's, worms, and keystroke loggers imbedded in their websites, or as obvious as saving your account info for later exploitation

What if I want a reoccurring sub, can I trade my plat for a paypal payment? I really don't see a difference. Let's be safe in game and on the forums please. I would hate for any bad transactions to happen.

“What if I want a reoccurring sub, can I trade my plat for a paypal payment? I really don't see a difference. Let's be safe in game and on the forums please. I would hate for any bad transactions to happen.”

“What if I want a reoccurring sub, can I trade my plat for a paypal payment? I really don't see a difference. Let's be safe in game and on the forums please. I would hate for any bad transactions to happen.”

lol so somehow trading plat for a string of numbers that could very well have been already redeemed (or just not given one at all) is safer than me trading my email address instead of said code? Paypal is one of the most widely accepted payment methods around, there is no exchange of private information, the person trading plat is the one at risk as they are now when blindly trading for a code. I guess the only difference is that with gamecards the $ goes directly into SOE's pockets, guess we clearly see that SOE's priority is not to eliminate plat scams in game and protect its players but to maximize their profits. Thanks for confirming that!

“What if I want a reoccurring sub, can I trade my plat for a paypal payment? I really don't see a difference. Let's be safe in game and on the forums please. I would hate for any bad transactions to happen.”

lol so somehow trading plat for a string of numbers that could very well have been already redeemed (or just not given one at all) is safer than me trading my email address instead of said code? Paypal is one of the most widely accepted payment methods around, there is no exchange of private information, the person trading plat is the one at risk as they are now when blindly trading for a code. I guess the only difference is that with gamecards the $ goes directly into SOE's pockets, guess we clearly see that SOE's priority is not to eliminate plat scams in game and protect its players but to maximize their profits. Thanks for confirming that!”

As I posted earlier CCP has a safe and secure way they do this for their game Eve Online. It is done totally inside the game.

Player A buys a game card from wherever. They log into their account and applies the game code. Then they 'send' the game time to a character. Then they log into that character and put the gametime on the broker.
Player B wants to buy 30 days of gametime with Plat. They go to the broker. They find the gametime that Player A has listed. They buy it.
Player A gets their Plat in a safe way. They don't have to give credit card numbers to 3rd party plat farmers.
Player B gets 30 days of gametime paid for with Plat.
SoE benefits in they get cash from the sale of the gamecard.
All players get a benefit because it reduces the motivation for gold farmers. SoE is now 'selling' plat in a safe and secure way.

“Last I heard, they were turning a blind eye as long as no one made it into an official deal; ie: set up a website with set conversion prices or anything. But yeah, SoE also won't really help you if you get ripped off or scammed, so it's entirely at your own risk.
Personally, it doesn't bother me. I know some online friends who live in areas where SC cards are, quite literally, unavailable. Having the means to get ahold of them, even if SoE doesn't entirely support it, I see as an option for them.”

Same, and I had no problem buying one for them, then sending them the SC card number. Mind you this was for a guildmate.
So yeah do be careful if you do it. Already had a big kaboom on AB where someone started a trade of this, got the person's plat then disappeared before getting their SC card number.

the only reason I asked was because in SWG this was a huge violation of the EULA, and if you were caught buying or selling timecards for credits you could be banned, And ill be honest making credits in that game was way, way, way easier then it is here, especially if you are a low level toon and cant run the best dungeons yet. But I still dont see a REDNAME post in here saying " oh yea, go ahead we dont care." And untilo i do im going to assume these type of transaction on non livegamer servers are void, otherwise what was the point in making freeport or bazaar servers

“the only reason I asked was because in SWG this was a huge violation of the EULA, and if you were caught buying or selling timecards for credits you could be banned, And ill be honest making credits in that game was way, way, way easier then it is here, especially if you are a low level toon and cant run the best dungeons yet.

But I still dont see a REDNAME post in here saying " oh yea, go ahead we dont care." And untilo i do im going to assume these type of transaction on non livegamer servers are void, otherwise what was the point in making freeport or bazaar servers”

“We really don't want to put a hard value on platinum to SC conversion rates, so we would probably only step in on this if we thought it was going to cause us legal headaches in the future. So...if kept on the low-down, it'll never cause problems. But if someone put up a website selling items officially with posted conversion rates, I have a feeling that legal might want to step in and stop it to avoid issues.
Make sense? Keep it person-to-person and I don't think this will ever be an issue.”